Wind, Obst, Wein und Spaß - living in Germany and Austria: the autumn edition

[LinzerTorte]

A thread for all those living in Germany or Austria or anyone who just wants to chat/ask a question about living in or visiting this part of the world - all welcome (particularly as the previous thread has been so quiet recently).

The thread title comes from this song btw - they're not the first four autumnal German words that popped into my head. (It could have been worse; I did briefly consider "Nüsse auf den Teller, Birnen in den Keller".)

If you don't break up till 23rd Linzer do your dc go back later too? Mine finish friday (half day, dont know why they bother) and are back on 5th (or rather, 6th, they have an 'Inset' day 5th. They can take time off, but we the parents can't!) It's always annoyed me, the not being allowed to take term-time hols, especially at term-end when they don't do anything anyway other than watch videos or do quizzes. I argue that I take mine to Germany (to further their Deutsch) or somewhere else 'cultural' (like a cruise! ) - in fact anywhere outside the UK will have different cultures, languages, food etc. It's all learning! Home schoolers get to go anytime.

The DC go back on the 7th ptumbi (the 6th is a bank holiday here). They have nine weeks off in the summer but not enough holiday during the school year IMO (we could really have done with a break in Oct/Nov). Completely agree that they don't miss much at the end of term; I certainly haven't felt guilty about taking the DC out of school a day or so early. And yes, what could be more cultural than a cruise? - all those countries in such a short space of time! They ought to be state-funded.

I now know what a Schnellhefter is bit late to this party ! I'm sure I used to use those for A-level assignments in the UK...

DD and I are back home now. She had an infection & a really high fever so they kept her in as she's still so tiny (She's 8 weeks old.) Thank you for all the get well soon messages

I'm on my phone again so can't see the thread but I love the idea of a state-funded cruise!

Woolly, hope your dd is better soon, must have been a scare having to stay in hospital. Did youhave help for ds?

Linzer, that's nice that you go back on the 7th! You get time to recover from the excitement of xmas and new year! We broke up on Friday. Still haven't looked up when they go back but it'll be just after new year I suppose.

Took dd to the city today to get some records. She has a record player on her wish list so we went to a shop for her to pick some LPs. I might have got her a few oldies that I also happen to love from the second hand section, they had loads of soul and 70s and 80s stuff! She chose some Mozart and some modern new release who I've never heard of!

Hope everyone is set for a relaxing xmas break!

Woolly - your poor tiny baby! Hope she is ok soon.

Ambling - I heard that 'old' technology is making a comeback! LPs have a totally different, more 'real' sound than CDs. I wish I had a record player. There's something really nice about putting a LP on rather than inserting a cd.

'state-funded cruise'! Linzer for Prime Minister!
In fact, I know that in Spain the old people get a state-funded holiday, out of season hotels get the business, they get a quiet holiday! In Czech if you have an accident or illness, they send you to a health farm for a week - my friend's dad broke an arm, got a week. Subsequently broke a leg, got 2 weeks....

Merry Christmas everyone! I've managed to impose quite an English Christmas on our house this year. It was really good fun sitting around the tree this morning opening presents

I hope you all have a lovely time.

Merry Christmas! Love the christmassy name

DD is much better, but of course then poor DS was ill over Christmas. He's much better now too, thankfully - we just all need to shake these colds and life will be back to normal.

Guten Rutsch everyone!

Can I join you please? We are moving to Germany on Monday... eek

snow welcome! And .... Ooohhh where are you moving too, and from?
You might want to stock up on thermal underwear before you leave m&s behind

Hi. We're moving to Stuttgart. Excited but nervous! All thermalled up as we ski/snowboard a lot so looking forward to resorts within a few hours :D.

Anyone near us?

Frohes Neues Jahr!!

Snowy I did bump into a MNetter, on another thread who is near Stuttgart, recently funnily enough. I'm way in the north near Hannover though I'm afraid.

Happy New Year, all!

(frauenglischlehrerin post-namechange dropping in)

Have to smile at how certain topics come round over and over on this thread - Cheddar and stationery

Hope everyone has survived the excesses of Christmas and didn't get blown up at Silvester. First Christmas here as a family of four was lovely, but I must admit I'm looking forward to getting a bit of routine back next week. I need to start up a bit of music practice again and would like to do a big declutter, Kondo-style, but it will all depend on ds's naps.

Good luck with the big move, snow! I'm near Frankfurt - I've never been to Stuttgart but I've heard it's lovely

Lebkuchen Good luck with the declutter! I'm planning on attempting one too but DD is in the middle of a particularly clingy week so I'm not too hopeful...

Hello NutElfa!

Good luck, snow! Hope the move went well. I am a bit jealous - i can't make a move over there for about 2.5 years...
Am booked to bring my boys over to Berlin for a couple of days in the Feb half term tho, looking forward to that.
Lebkuchen (oooh yum!) I hate clutter! My tree and decs are down and I feel so much better :)
Woolly, glad your DC are feeling better. My new German tutor is from near Frankfurt. It's v difficult to get to from Gatwick, I know that! Flight to koln then train.

Happy new year from Vienna - it`s a blizzard here. Just got back from ice-skating. I just can´t do it, but insist on trying every year.

I´ve been lurking every now and then, but didn´t have a chance to post. I name changed, posted lots of rubbish under that name then forgot my password and couldn´t namechange back. But now managed it.

Had a much-needed break over Christmas. I am not one for new year`s resolutions, but there is no denying my jeans feel a bit tight. grrr...that can only mean far too many Christmas biscuits and lebkuchen, can´t it? and therefore a need to eat more healthily and do more excercise? oh darn!

decluttering is another topic that comes up often . I also need to do some of that. But what I am most dreading, is getting dd1 (12 years old) to do some. She will be a real challenge - she´s a bit of a messy hoarder. Actually I am just waiting for a laundry crisis here. A few weeks ago, we delegated laundry to the the dds. They now do their own laundry on designated days (that they chose). dd2 has been great at it. DD1 complained the first week, did it and hasn´t done any since. The laundry crisis is bound to coincide with going back to school on Wednesday.

Funny to think record players are in again.

Hope all the little ones are healthy again and stay healthy.

hello snow hope the move went well. How long are you moving over for? How old are you dc?

I was just coming onto this thread to ask if there were Vienna people on here! suenan are you ice skating on a river? Take heart, two of the most athletic people I knew didn't take to ice skating, one couldn't leave the edge and the other kept pulling me down with him

I'm moving to Vienna in a month so I am hoping to do a Great Leap Forward with my German. Scary times ahead with the grammar books.

Oh also, are all Spars in Austria so upmarket? I went recently and was amazed, not a patch on the corner shop at home.

Hello all and Happy New Year! We got back from the UK a couple of days ago, which was a nice break but it went far too quickly. Had quite a shock just before Christmas though, when DD's best friend's father died very suddenly and unexpectedly; even now, it still hasn't quite sunk in.

Hi velour, I'm just outside Vienna. Are you moving over with family or on your own? Spars here vary; we have a Gourmet Spar in the town centre (fairly upmarket, as you can probably tell from the name) plus a couple of "normal" Spars on the edge of town, and there are also bigger Eurospars and Interspars; big by Austrian standards, anyway. Spars are probably middle of the range here; more expensive than Lidl and Hofer, but cheaper than Merkur.

suenan DD1 is also a messy hoarder, but I've decided to tackle my own clutter first before nagging her too much! Am very impressed with your DDs doing their own laundry (although I'm a bit of a control freak and don't even let DH deal with the washing as he tends to mix darks and lights, leave things to dry for too long, etc.!).

ptumbi Lucky you, I'd love to go back to Berlin again - I haven't been for four or five years. We took our tree down and put the decorations away on the 27th, when we flew back to the UK, and it was so nice not to have to do it when we came back.
I'm also quite impressed by the availability of health farms/spa breaks here; a friend of mine was entitled to a (well-deserved) three-week Kur after she'd finished her cancer treatment, for example.

snow Hope the move went well and that you're settling in OK.

Nutella I managed to impose a British Christmas here too - luckily I didn't need to do too much persuading as DH prefers celebrating on the 25th too, and the DC were quite happy just to open one present each on Christmas Eve.

Ambling Have your DC gone back now? It's good to have a few days after New Year to recover (although I'm not sure whether we're off all that much longer than Germany/the UK after New Year), but it would have been nice for the DC to have finished more than a day before Christmas!

Woolly Glad to hear the DC are better; poor DS, though, being ill over Christmas. Hope everyone's fit and healthy now!

Lebkuchen Hope DS's naps are allowing you some practice and decluttering time. I'm also planning to have a big declutter and have more or less done the clothes, but have been stuck on paperwork for weeks. None of it brings me joy, but I think it could well bring me a whole lot less joy if I didn't have it! Well, some of it... it's just deciding what needs to be kept.

Hello Linzer :)
oh the Gourmet Spar at the airport was amazing.....I could have bought everything. Instead I bought a CAT ticket.
I'm on my year abroad, so one semester's done and I'm in Vienna for the next. Hence the need to buck my German up. How "penetrable" do you find Vienna, like are the people friendly, and did you notice your language skills getting better quickly? that's assuming you're an expat!

Yes, I'm a British expat velour and have been in Austria for over 10 years now. I find the people in this area - half an hour from Vienna - very friendly (according to DH, the Viennese aren't quite as friendly but I don't spend enough time in Vienna to compare; suenan would probably be more help) and it's been fairly easy to get to know the locals. The advantage of living in Vienna is that there are lots of expats; it could of course be a disadvantage in that it would probably be fairly easy to spend all your time with fellow expats, but I've found my expat friends (and MN!) to be a lifeline.

As far as the language is concerned, I already had a degree in German when I moved here so it was just the Austrian dialect I had to get to grips with. Having said that, I've found my everyday German has improved a lot since being here; I can't remember how long it took, but months rather than years. OTOH I feel like my German has been stagnating for several years now!

Where else have you been Velour?

Linzer - I'm hoping my German improves in 'months rather than years' when I eventually come over; then again I've only got Olevel/conversational german. Def no degree! (what do you cover at Degree level? DS2 has 'done' the grammar at A2. Even the Alevel he's doing this year seems to focus more on vocab and politics than grammar)

It depends a lot on the university, ptumbi. The more traditional universities tend to focus on literature, whereas the former polytechnics and newer universities often have more more language/linguistics-based courses. We studied literature, culture, politics, had more advanced spoken and written language classes than at A level (translation, grammar, essay writing, etc.) and also had non-language-specific lectures on economics which I used to fall asleep in.

Have just been reading a discussion on the local FB page about why Sternsinger (Ephiphany singers) are no longer blacking up as Melchior. Amazing the number of people who think that the lack of a blacked-up Melchior is racist - one even said that we're excluding black people (I won't write the actual word she used) in favour of white people. The main reason given is that children don't like having make-up on their face...

Linzer just at that!
I for some reason mentioned to BIL the other day about why do they still do pictures on a CV in Germany?! As well as the whole blacking up and lack of diversity in children's books etc... Yeah that was a great conversation for me to start I know ...

Hi, is anyone near Dortmund/Kamen? Dh is out there at the moment for training and it looks likely that we will all be moving out there in the next few months. We have 3 children, 7, 4 and 10 months. Any info appreciated! The renting scenario confuses me what with them advertising number of rooms total instead of bedrooms, and no kitchens!

Hello, a happy new year to everyone Hope you all had lovely Christmas breaks. I am back and fully stocked up with marmite and PG tips

linzer that is amazing, but so very credible I've wondered about that too MrsNutella. I remember it being a big thing for Stage applications at the Commission etc, I was told I had to make sure I had a really good photo (obviously interest in European affairs and relevant experience didn't count for anything ). They all need shaking up!

Mummypig24 good luck with the impending move. I'm nowhere near there I'm afraid, but I am now a veteran of moving into rentals here (as are many other people on the thread), so if there's anything you don't get, do come and ask. Yes it's number of rooms, not including bathroom/kitchen. The kitchen thing is a PITA. If you're using a search engine like Immobilienscout you can tick Einbauküche so that you get only the flats with a kitchen listed, but then do read the listing carefully as they sometimes say "we put in a kitchen so we want €5,000 towards that, please". I never plucked up courage to go for one of those and haggle, but just discounted them. OTOH a friend here went for a new build flat with no kitchen, and had an ikea one put in reasonably cheaply and painlessly - and didn't have to pay a provision, so it's swings and roundabouts I suppose. Complicated when you're not used to the system though (me last June = !). However, with some perseverance, and lots of nice smiling (!), we have ended up with a really nice flat, so it does come good in the end.